Ghosts of a Future Already Gone
by paranoia.pink
Summary: Some things are not meant to be forgiven, and sometimes there is no peace. Jiraiya and Naruto travel, pre-timeskip. Sasuke is always present at the back of Naruto's mind.
1. Chapter 1

Most of the time, Naruto didn't understand Jiraiya. It was strange because Naruto _knew_ that he and Jiraiya were a lot alike. They were both loud, both powerful, and both perverts. It's the lack of dedication that Naruto couldn't understand (though since he was very simple in some ways, Naruto phrased it as: Why is the old man so lazy?).

As far as Naruto could see, Jiraiya spent most of his time peeping, an activity Naruto somewhat hypocritically joined him in, or writing his porn. While Jiraiya thought of this as a perfectly valid use of his time, Naruto simply can't understand not training. Orochimaru wass out there, constantly fighting and building up his army, moving ever closer towards a final confrontation with Leaf Village. Naruto's skin burned just thinking about it.

Most of the time they simply moved from village to village; the two thought the same way and made good traveling partners. They were content in their similarities, happy to find another who wanted to stop at the same point they want to, and got bored with any given town at the same time. They didn't argue about the little things, where to stop, how long to stay, where to go, what to eat. Their companionship was easy in this way.

Where they got bogged down was in the bigger things, the things that were harder to talk about because there were so many sore points. Sasuke took up a good deal of Naruto's hate and love and frustration and deep thoughts. What occupied Jiraiya when he can't sleep, Naruto didn't know.

Where the similarity between the two broke down is at the level of the intellect. Jiraiya was capable of thinking in poetry, even if what he wrote down is crappy porn, and Naruto was unable to relate on this level. When Naruto talked about Sasuke, or the fox, he spoke simply, with raw emotion and he stumbled over his words. Mostly, he didn't like to talk about it at all; usually, training worked well enough to supress everything.

When Jiraiya talked about his demons, Naruto didn't understand anything he said. One day, after a long day of chakra control, and they were sitting by the fire together, each staring into it and brooding on their individual demons, Jiraiya contemplatively said, "It feels like my entire life has been flashes of instances. Like one minute I understand everything, and then I blink, and then new things are happening. But I've lost everything in between." Naruto could do nothing but stare blankly; all he could think to respond is "Wha?" but that's not a very good response so he said nothing, which was probably the best thing to say anyway.

Naruto knew there were parallels between Orochimaru and Sasuke, just like there were parallels between him and his teacher. Why else, after all, would things work out this way, so neatly? He and Jiraiya and Sasuke and Orochimaru and even Sakura and Tsunade and wasn't that just so _weird_? It was like fate or something.

Naruto still didn't understand seven months later, when they arrived in a small town in Water country. They were "incognito," meaning that they tried not to be too loud or noticeable, which they both failed at miserably, as usual. Even so, they managed to make it to the dingy hotel without incident, moving down the single road through the rain.

There was only one room, so they bedded down together. Jiraiya had cold feet, so when Naruto woke up in the middle of the night with an ice block against his calf, he wasn't particularly surprised. Resignedly, he got up, knowning that he wouldn't be able to escape the feet now that Jiraiya had migrated over. Stupid old man. Naruto was not at all subtle, but even he was able to understand that the cold feet could be a horrible ploy by the old man to get the entire bed all to himself. That was because he understands Jiraiya was a sneaky old bastard, much like what Naruto will become.

It is cold and clammy outside, probably because this is, after all, _Water Country_, so Naruto pulled on his not-subtle-at-all sweater and went out to train. Sitting on the front porch of the hotel was a small kid, dirty and dark haired. Naruto was reminded with a chill of Haku, and his miserable childhood. He wondered, for a minute, just how many children were ignored and dirty orphans here. He also wondered if Fire Country would look like this if Orochimaru won. Naruto completely ignored the fact that he was once an orphan exactly like this kid, because he obviously didn't count.

The entire town kind of looked dirty and run-down though, not just the kid. Like almost everybody had left, or was dead. It looked like the Uchiha compound. Ugh. Uchiha and Haku in one day. Plus cold feet! It really had _not_ been his morning.

He went towards the nearest empty clearing, feeling around for any kind of chakra signature. There was nothing, so he started running up trees, a comforting routine that started off most of his days now. He spiced it up by only putting chakra in the tips of his toes, of course, but it was still easy.

An hour later, he finally noticed the feeling of disquiet that had been trickling down his neck for the past hour, slowly increasing in magnitude. Looking down out of the corner of his eye he saw... the orphan boy. The child was incredibly skinny, and had a slim pale face. When the kid made eye contact, he ran away. It was then, from the way it moved, that Naruto finally realized it was a girl. He almost saw red for a minute; something in him had always hated the idea of girl orphans, even though Sakura would kick his ass if he ever said anything like that out loud.

After she ran off in fear, he started training again. Going after her wouldn't do anything but make her more scared, he knew, but maybe her curiosity would bring her back.

The sun rose completely, burning off the morning haze, and Naruto came out of his trance to a completely different forest, one which was bright and shining and somehow looked a lot bigger. Mist had a way of shrinking things, Naruto reasoned to himself. It seemed reasonable that everything became closed in when you couldn't see fifty feet beyond you. Jiraiya was back in the village, and Naruto decided to take a break, just to see if Jiraiya actually had anything relevant to training to say.

Which, of course, he didn't. Sometime Naruto really wondered about the pervert, where all his drive went. On the other hand, maybe there was nowhere to go once you reach Sannin status. But Orochimaru! It was an endless cycle that Naruto kept turning over in his mind, one he couldn't quite wrap his mind around.

Jiraiya was sitting at the bar right next to their lodging, well into his fifth cup, which wasn't much until you factored in the size of the cup. He was also sulking, which in a town like this could only mean one thing. "Get shot down again, old man? You should stop hitting on girls younger than you, maybe then you'd get some." Naruto paused for effect, Jiraiya eyeing him sourly. "Oh, yeah, that's right! Only _Granny_ is your age, and she's way too attractive for your wrinkled ass. Oh well!"

"You're funny kid. For your information, the girl came on to _me_. A figure like Venus, but with youthful litheness. So young! Such wicked knowledge! A dark-haired, mysterious beauty with eyes like fire." Naruto eyed his teacher with amusement as he went on about the girl for another five minutes, waxing poetic.

"I'm telling you boy, if I have a feminine ideal, she's as close as I've come." "Not," Jiraiya took another gulp, "that I settle for one archetype of beauty of course, I'm a man of varied tastes."

Naruto settled in on a barstool and ordered a cup of his own. "Whatever, pervert. Whenever I think about your taste in women I feel a little sick."

"Ah yes, I do like them young sometimes, don't I?"

"Eh, yeah, that's what I mean. Shut up about it, I don't want to know." Naruto looked around the bar then, only now fully examining his surroundings. His first glance coming inside had revealed nothing dangerous, but on second glance he felt jarred. There wasn't anything specific that threw him off; all the other winos were quite and seemed perfectly harmless (to a ninja, anyway), and there were no strange chakra signatures Naruto could detect. But still, there was a trace of something wrong, like a remnant or a stain in the air.

Naruto murmured into his cup "Old man, what's going on here?"

Jiraiya muttered back, not moving at all, "I'm not sure. It was here when I came in."

"Is it some kind of scar? A curse?"

"Good job, boy." Jiraiya sounded somewhat surprised. "You're getting quicker on the uptake. I think it is. Something happened here, and it's left its mark. You wanna follow it?"

Naruto grinned into his cup. "No duh."

They both got up and Jiraiya paid for them. Moving out, they strolled around the entire length of the town, what little there was of it. There wasn't much there, only a small general store and what appeared to be a small schoolhouse, a remnant of more stable times. It was surprising, all things considered, that there was even a place to stay here. This village might have been on a trade route once, before everything was disrupted.

Oddly, the only other place they found the trace was their hotel. Naruto felt a slight chill; neither of them had noticed. Even if Naruto wasn't very good at noticing this kind of thing, he should have seen something. Shaking his head, he waved at Jiraiya and ran off, back to the clearing. It was only when he stopped for a breath that he noticed: it was here too! What the hell?

He stopped, linking the tavern to the forest, and realized the only thing linking them together. And it made a grim kind of sense too. It wouldn't be strange, for a ghost of some kind to link to a child. Children sometimes had an unfair amount of tragedy attached to them. Naruto felt very protective of the girl at that moment, simultaneously afraid and angry for her. She was probably only five or six, and it was sad, just too sad.

That ominous feeling attached to a child probably explained how Naruto could feel anything. He just wasn't sensitive in that way, but he felt a deep and abiding sympathy for little kids. His connection to that kind of thing might enable him to see what he would normally miss.

He started searching, spreading out from the town and circling outward, searching all the places a young girl would hide out and finding nothing, before finally finding a small hut a mile away. It was empty, but it too had the same jarring feeling. Naruto shivered. It was like seeing a dark blurry object out of the corner of your eye that you knew meant to hurt you - and there was someone out there, just a little girl, who felt it all the time.

He knocked on the door lightly, careful of the rotting wood, before ducking inside and looking around. There were clothes scattered around, a woman's and a small girl's. There was a small toy duck, which used to be yellow but was now a faded orange. The place looked like it hadn't been lived in for a while, but Naruto definitely felt it was connected to the spiritual rot here.

The place was too creepy to stay in long, so once Naruto was sure no clues were there, he left to find Jiraiya.

He was sitting in front of the bar, on a bench outside. Night was coming on, so more and more people were gathering together after a long day, and they filtered in and out frequently. They all looked the same, Naruto noticed, all dark-haired and all pale. This entire town, in fact, reminded Naruto of _him_, from the pale coloring to the strange silence they all carried with them to the hauntedness of it all. This place had seen too much desertion and desolation in past years, and it showed.

"Yo, Naruto," Jiraiya greeted from his seat. He seemed deceptively relaxed, enough for Naruto to tell that every sense was in reality alert. "How'd your day go?"

"Good. I figured something out. You?"

"Huh. I figured out something too. Enough for us to be sure that the curse won't be following us on the road. Listen to this: thirty years ago, back when this area was more prosperous and had traders moving in and out occasionally, a beautiful healer lived here. Her family had lived out in the woods for generations, collecting the precious plants that grow out in that forest. She lived out in the woods all by herself, and came into town frequently to heal those too sick to come out and visit her. A young man, a young man who was visiting in that inn," and here Jiraiya pointed emphatically right across the street, "fell in love with this woman.

"He stayed for months here, wracking up debts and generally making a great fool of himself, mooning after her like the whelp he was. She kept refusing his advances, and would choose no other. He went mad with love, or with lust, and murdered her right where we are sitting. No one came out to help her, even though there was a window right here and she screamed for help until her last breath. Even to this day she haunts the main street right here. And she was the woman I met in the tavern, I'm certain of it!"

Jiraiya leaned back, giving a satisfied sigh. "So if nothing else, we're safe because she haunts the town, not just random travelers." At Naruto's angry look, he amended, "But of course we're going to try to help the town, why not after all? I'm just saying, you know, that we're probably safe from her. If we need to be.

"Now, Naruto, you look like you're troubled. What did you find out?"

Naruto squinted into the distance, in the direction of the hut, troubled. "Sensei, did you say she lived alone?" At Jiraiya's nod, he continued "But I found the place she lived, a place really heavy with the taint, and there were women _and _girl clothes there. And there's something else. There's a girl. She was sitting out on the front porch right there when I came out this morning, and she followed me out training too. The taint is in both places. I think this healer, I don't know why, is following this little girl. But it's wrong; we need to stop it!"

No child deserved to be haunted. Naruto thought again of the Uchiha compound, silent and cold when he had visited it. A discoloration that might have been splattered blood still colored the sidewalks. The fan that splayed over the main room. Naruto hadn't gone any further in than that, even though he had wanted to look at Sasuke's bedroom. He couldn't stand to see any more evidence of his friend's self-torture.

"Alright," agreed Jiraiya, somewhat surprised at Naruto's vehemence, though he knew he shouldn't be, not really. Naruto was much more compassionate than his teacher, maybe because he was young, maybe because he was born that way. "If we want to help this little girl, we should probably find her."

Again, for the second time that day, they searched the tiny little street, this time with dark approaching. The tavern was the most likely place for the healer to go, but she was following the little girl, who might have gone for shelter somewhere.

Finally, when they couldn't find her anywhere in town, they went back to the hut. Though they waited there for several hours, huddled in the woods outside the mold-black shack, nobody went inside or near it. Those were some of the most eerie hours of Naruto's life; he couldn't stand the idea of a orphan using it as a shelter, night after night, going into the blackened ramshackle thing. He himself had slept in places that looked worse, but never anywhere that made him sick just to look at it. The house almost vibrated when he looked at it, it was so cursed.

In the depths of night, when the moon had fully risen and the birds were starting to sing, they gave it up as fruitless and went back to the inn for the night. Maybe she would show up to watch Naruto train tomorrow?

Right when Naruto was about to climb into their window, however, Jiraiya stopped and canted his head towards the main street. They climbed slowly over the roof of the hotel, only to freeze at a grey-black figure, which Naruto slowly realized was the child. But different, possessed by a furious rage.

"We have to help her!" Naruto hissed. "She's being hurt by that ghost!"

Jiraiya tensed. "Naruto, when you look at her, what do you see?"

"It's the same orphan, but she's surrounded by an angry aura. That's the ghost, right?"

He nodded slowly. "But when I look, Naruto, I see a beautiful woman – the woman from the bar – now with a stab wound in her stomach. We see the same aura though. "

"Is the little girl possessed?"

"Um, maybe. I've also heard that ghosts take on different forms, depending upon who they're facing. The woman... she looks very violent."

"The little girl just looks angry." Naruto blinked in wonderment. Did this mean that the ghost was two people? Or that she liked Naruto better?

"You should go down," Jiraiya said, nodding firmly, almost but not quite hiding his fear.

"Coward," Naruto muttered, sticking out his tongue before crawling down the front side of the roof. He wasn't afraid, for some reason. He just felt that the little girl had been if not friendly, at least not mad all the times before. When she turned to look at him though, her eyes were so wide and black he started to have second thoughts. Bracing himself, he kept walking forwards.

"You. What are you doing here, traveler?" The voice was hushed, and a small child's, but it echoed and hummed.

"Eh... I was looking for you. To help you," he added. What the hell were you supposed to say to a ghost, anyway?

"Help me? Little child, you cannot help me. I do not want to be helped, after all." There it was again, that echo. She was a little girl, but she was also a woman, a gentle-faced one that reminded him of Haku. When Haku was in his girl clothing, of course. She made Jiraiya afraid, but to him, for a second, she looked caring like Iruka did sometimes. She made him feel happy a little, even with the seeping hole in her stomach.

"Why are you here? And you were a little girl. You are the woman, right?"

She nodded, looking dark. "I am the healer you were speaking of earlier, with that pervert."

Hah. Naruto laughed nervously, thinking that in this case Jiraiya's obvious pervertedness wasn't so good, considering how and why she died. "Is that why you look like a adult to him? Cause he's like that?"

"Possibly. And you are a child; I cannot bear you ill will." She looked so gentle when she said the word 'child,' almost incandescent.

"Did you like children?" he asked curiously. She really wasn't all that scary-looking right now.

"Yes, I had always loved them. I held a child in my belly when I died," she ground out, fully adult and angry, before she calmed down again. "Her spirit was too weak to stay. I am in this form with you now because you want to see it. And because it comforts me. A child's heart is stronger than an adult's. As a child I can forgive, when as a woman I can only be angry. I loved this town as a little girl, and when I am like that, I can love it still."

She paused then, looking sad and small, even when in the form of a beautiful woman. "If you would have love from someone, get it when they are a child; people are more capable of love then than at any other point. I am almost glad my little girl died, rather than have to grow up in this town, which is rotting and sad and will die soon; some places should not be loved.

"One day this village will simply be a ghost, and I will haunt nothing but empty buildings. I am happy, in fact, that she must not stay here and haunt this place too."

Naruto felt unspeakably sad when he remembered the baby and toddler and little girl's clothes scattered around the shack. To be anticipating a baby so much, and to be thankful you never had it... this was a cruel place. "Is there anything we can do? How can we give you peace?"

She smiled at him. "Some things are not meant to be forgiven. And sometimes there is no resolution; I am a ghost now, and wish to remain one until I fade away. There may be no point to it, but I would rather be a creature of memory and hate than have the past fade away. The evil my murderer committed must be remembered, both because he killed myself and my baby, and because no one reached out to stop him, though they could see his descent into lust and obsession. My tragedy must be remembered, though it causes me only rage and pain." And that, Naruto thought, was the saddest thing of all, though he couldn't tell why. His chest felt heavy like he would cry, but he pushed the tears down. It ached.

"Now leave me, you and your older friend. I have no patience for him, but no wish to hurt you, child. Go hide in your room, and leave tomorrow. Trouble me no more." When Naruto looked at her, he could see only the woman; the little orphan girl he had seen was gone. He turned around and couldn't look back until the inn door was closed behind him.

When they woke up that morning, they got dressed silently; they hadn't spoken of the woman, Naruto couldn't tell if it was a sensitive subject with his teacher. Probably not. After all, Jiraiya had seen much worse things. It stuck in Naruto's head though, even as they left the town behind until it finally disappeared in the mist and the trees.

Shortly after they left, Naruto and Jiraiya were once again sitting and staring into a fire. Naruto had to ask. "Jiraiya, how are you able to just go a day without training? How are you able to forget?"

"Naruto, it was not hard for me to let go. For you, every town holds some reminder of your rival. I see Orochimaru reflected in nothing. He doesn't occupy enough of my mind for me to see him in every event, every coincidence. No thing in my life serves as a way to understand his."

At Naruto's blank look, Jiraiya put his pipe down, looked Naruto in the eye, and said flatly, "I'll only tell you once, Naruto, but it's obvious that you need me to spell it out. Orochimaru and I are not the same as you and Sasuke. Orochimaru, I didn't want him to come back. He turned from a creepy little kid to a creepy and insanely driven man in a flash, and without me really caring either way. We were not ever friends, let alone the intense, obsessive _thing_ you silly little kids seem to be wrapped up in." With that, he settled in on himself, staring fixedly at the fire.

Naruto sat there for awhile. To think, that things were not the same. It seemed he always needed things spelled out for him. Jiraiya had said once that there were always metaphors and parallels in life, but Naruto was just too slow to grasp them. He had been smugly joking at the time, or had been as far as he could figure out.

So Team 7 and the Legendary Three were not the same? It was true, Naruto supposed, that Jiraiya could write and Naruto could not; Sakura didn't like risks the way Tsunade did. He didn't know what the differences between Orochimaru and Sasuke were; he probably wasn't subtle enough to see them.

But if that was not a true metaphor, what was? His mind kept going back to the ghost woman, and how sad she made him, sad beyond the rape and murder she had suffered. "My tragedy must be remembered, though it causes me only rage and pain." Naruto felt like he was being bashed over the head with whatever it was, he just couldn't see it. When they both bedded down, he still didn't quite understand.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note**: So this started out as a one-shot, and it felt complete at the time, but then I just... kept on writing. Naruto and Jiraiya make a really great team, and I guess I wanted to revisit that.

The house sounds empty; the halls resound with an absence of footsteps and the streets of the compound whine their desolation. Naruto shrugs off the atmosphere and heads straight for the main building.

"Naruto!" Jiraiya calls in the distance. Naruto doesn't bother to answer. He is too close now, finally, to his goal. He walks softly but not sneakily, so as to avoid attention from any living or dead. The door slips open easily under his hand, and he goes inside, wiping a streak of dust off his face with the back of his hand. Naruto only succeeds in smearing it further, a dull gray spot, his cheek hectic pink in the shadows.

Naruto walks through the dirt to the dust, prying open the top drawer and pawing through it. A bunch of scrolls, dust, pens with no ink, and... Ah. There. Red trim faded, hard to make out in this light anyway; Naruto pockets the scroll and leaves, a last curious glance around. If there are any other secrets tucked away, they would have to wait for someone else. Naruto had the only thing that mattered now.

"Jiraiya? Perv, where are you?" Naruto follows the sound of a crash to a small hut off the main complex. Jiraiya stumbles out the door, face flushed. Behind him, Naruto can see the gray shapes of mats and overhangs and... of course. The maids' quarters. "They're _dead, _you know. That's gross." Jiraiya grins and fails to look guilty.

Together, Naruto and Jiraiya walk out of the deserted compound, heavier by one scroll and one pair of ladies underwear. They close the gate carefully behind them.

Jiraiya and eventually Naruto have reached the point where they can identify desolation around them as it develops. There is a rhythm to loss, one that radiates outward and echoes off the surrounding countrysides. It starts with people: first a trickle of men, crippled with age but still moving; next come wagons, one or two at a time, children peeking out from behind mother and father, not quite afraid; then come the women alone, sometimes with children, sometimes not; then come the boys alone, some Naruto's age, traveling nervously in packs of two or three; last come the walking wounded. The dead should count too, Naruto supposes, but they're hardest to spot, lying where they fell, trampled and rotting.

The two move against the current of people, towards and through the hot spots, the scroll secreted in Naruto's (otherwise empty) coin purse, the frog face fat and distended. It's an obvious bulge under his shirt, and Naruto is careless enough that pickpockets might have been a problem – but there aren't any here in Water Country, not right now anyway; come winter there will be starvation and homelessness will be a real problem. Summer is the time for war.

They stop at a tavern later. A good fifty miles away from the nearest city and removed from the fighting, it is bustling with traffic. Jiraiya sits down and grabs a drink and attention, the entire place tuning in as he starts the story of the two milk maids, the goat, and the particularly rainy day.

Most of the place, anyway. There's an older waitress who's obviously heard this one before, taking the moment to clean up a bit. Naruto thinks, looking absently at her ass as she bends down to pick up deserted glasses, that she has probably heard a lot before. She straightens up then, lifting a hand to pull a strand of hair up out of her face. So close to the fire she is flushed and a little sweaty, and when her hair gleams red in the firelight Naruto thinks that he has never seen anything he liked to look at more. Later, after Jiraiya has "passed out" – or has he really? Naruto can never tell with that old man – he goes into the stables and she shows him how much she appreciated the attention. He thinks, looking up at the stars that night, that nothing could feel better than the softness and bounce of her under his hands.

That morning when they leave, Jiraiya notices her tired smile at him and cackles gleefully. Naruto shrugs and is just glad that it wasn't a dream.

The war in Water, Jiraiya explains, is between two equally powerful, equally foolish factions. "It doesn't matter what they're called," Jiraiya insists. "It doesn't matter what they're fighting for. It really is all the same in the end." Naruto has seen the leavings of both groups as they hit villages and taverns throughout the region, and he has to agree.

Though their names don't really matter, Naruto can't help but hear the names and the colors and the fealties and who supposedly did what to who. The Lady Sho is the rightful heir to the land, according to one old woman. She polishes a semi-ripe apple on her sleeve before handing it to Jiraiya, who nods politely to everything she says. Sho's flag is a blue wave on a blue ocean, all bound in a single blue raindrop; she's beautiful and regal and so kind. She's certainly beautiful and regal, but quite cold from a distance, which is as close as Naruto has come. The Izuka (Kiba, Naruto thinks) party parades her cousin's claim. _They_ say – and here the woman scoffs, and hands Naruto an apple too, which he gulps down in three bites – that a gleaming dragon came down from a mountain near Izuka's childhood home, where he had gone as a refuge from Lady Sho's assassins. The dragon wrapped itself around Izuka and boomed out a mandate from heaven to take Water Country and hone out of her peoples a weapon to conquer the world. The dragon is a sinuous red flash over each battlefield, a herald of blood; for this and other reasons, the Izukas are called the Bloods.

The pair travels on foot for many days, going slow to avoid detection. Spring is officially over now, and the forests are thick and lush around them. It makes good hiding for two ninjas from a village hidden in the leaves, and they are left in peace, though occasionally they can hear the sounds of fighting break out around them. Mostly quick and dirty skirmishes that end as soon as they begin, and Naruto isn't even phased by them anymore.

When the land starts to narrow and bogs start to creep in around them, Jiraiya decides a calculated risk is in order, and they approach the Blood's main camp warily, examining the hasty fortifications. The walls block off the only fragile strip of land connecting Sho in her stolid island fortress to the mainland. When they approach the guards Jiraiya draws himself up to his full height and throws back his shoulders. He doesn't disguise himself except by turning his Leaf headband inside out, clearly a ninja but an unidentified one now. Though nothing changes but his bearing, he's suddenly a different man: solemn, wise, and above all, powerful. Naruto draws himself up too and does his best Sasuke impression, all silence and scorn.

It works, and the guards gesture them to the main tent in a (comical, if Naruto hadn't seen what they could do to innocent civilians) procession of nervousness, handed off from trembling man to trembling man. Behind him, Naruto could hear the soldiers relax in the wake of their passage, hear the conversations start up again around each fire pit: "We're winning, all thanks to my Lord's great weapon, and soon we'll have the Sho bitch right where we want her!" He swallows and stops listening.

They're at the Blood's main tent anyway, and it's here that he needs to pay attention, needs to watch how the pervert does this. Izuka is sitting on plush red pillows, chuckling into his red wine. He gulps it down with relish and motions for a servant with big gestures, patting the servant (and of course she's wearing red) on the ass with a proprietary hand while she refills his cup before shooing her off.

When he sees them, he rises, arms out and a smile breaking out over his jocular features. "My two favorite nin! Master Oru and his little Sasu! Have any more great finds for me?" he chortles, gesturing at the surrounding pillows with little "sit, sit" hand motions. He and "Oru" both take tea, and Naruto follows suit after a jerky hesitation. Izuka takes out his sword, which gleams a dull silver in the light of the red lanterns overhead. He starts to polish it, looking at Jiraiya significantly out of the corner of his eye as his mouth says unimportant things. _"Remember," _Jiraiya insists in his memory, _"it doesn't matter. They're all the same in the end." _

A prisoner is brought out and dances for their entertainment, hobbling around in his shackles while Naruto's teeth grind and his stomach turns but everything on the surface is still and calm. When the man collapses, Izuka takes his sword out and plays with it some more, turning from the man back to Jiraiya. _Is he trying to scare us?_ Naruto wonders fuzzily, blinking rapidly and trying to focus. His last thought before he passes out is, ironically _What a dope._

His first thought when he wakes up and sees bright morning sunlight is _The tea._ Jiraiya hadn't actually drunk any of it. _Dammit._ Jiraiya's face pops into his vision, a stern mask over a twinkle in his eye. When they leave the camp of enemies the mask falls away and he won't stop teasing. Naruto crawls along behind him the rest of the day, head pounding.

Lady Sho's castle looms in the distance, large and dank and still several hours away. There is a haze on the horizon makes it seem so close, but Naruto is familiar enough with this hell of a swampland that he's not fooled. They trudge wearily through the swamp, neither of them good at dealing with water or at avoiding treacherous taps sucking them down into the murk. _So why are we here at all_, wonders Naruto, not for the first time. Naruto doesn't like being at a disadvantage, and here in Water Country there are so many to be had. He misses solid ground.

Once they arrive, reaching Sho is less complicated; they're expected, if only by one person, and they only have to hide out in the stables until nightfall. Naruto gets some straw up his nose – which he didn't stick up there deliberately, thanks Jiraiya but he's not that dumb, promise – and almost gives the game away by sneezing in front of the grooms. He's a man now though, fourteen, and has a will of iron, so he just snorts funny instead, which sounded enough like a horse that nobody looked twice.

Night falls slowly, and after midnight they enter Sho's bedroom window, pushing aside the blue curtains cautiously. She looks up unsurprised, and sits there waiting. Her robe is slipping off one smooth shoulder, Naruto can't help but notice. It's obviously not meant to be enticing though; Sho just _is_. She's all business, and says preemptively, Jiraiya's mouth open awkwardly, "Was my source correct?"

Jiraiya approaches with a nod, taking out the scroll out of a hidden pocket in his sleeve. She grasps it carefully, examining the red dragon twining around the top of the scroll.

"The compound was completely empty; there weren't even any bodies," Jiraiya says, continuing after she looks up sharply from her inspection, eyes gleaming. "The spell is bloodless, and undetectable."

"And doesn't need a battle to work," she murmurs. "Finally something to counteract that damned sword." She looks at them again, and her eyes are cold enough that Naruto feels exposed an young. "You have done well." With that she hands them a bag and looks back down at the scroll. Clearly, they are dismissed, and Naruto and Jiraiya leave the way they came.

They travel in silence a long time, dragging across bogs and patches of murky water and mud that swallows their legs up to the knee, until they give up on subtlety and race along, water flying up in giant tails behind them. Soaked, but finally free of the swamps and islands and islets and Water country itself, they cross over to the relative safety of Fire, forests and mountains all familiar and solid. Cheered and confident and himself again, Naruto struts. So does Jiraiya, but Jiraiya's always strutting. Unless he's plodding, which happens when he's lazy or hasn't seen any beautiful women in a while.

That night, sitting around their usual campfire, Jiraiya cooking up some of their usual tasteless yet strangely unappetizing stew, Naruto finally works up to asking. "Old perv, explain something to me. Why the hell did we just do that?"

Jiraiya smiles, or maybe grimaces, fingers rubbing together the money in a pouch around his neck. "Naruto, there are some things that just have to be done."

"...Like?" Like taking half of the money out of that pouch and putting it into Naruto's own frog purse, perhaps? Like learning to cook so he doesn't have to eat the old man's food anymore? Or like fleeing because Akatsuki wanted to kill him?

"Naruto. Ah. Hm. Well... Water has always been hostile to those with bloodlines, those with powers beyond the ordinary. And Leaf – well, Leaf is just full of special little snowflakes." At Naruto's uncomprehending look, Jiraiya says with a touch of exasperation, "The more they kill each other, the less there will be to go after us. Happy? Good. Now eat your stew."


	3. Chapter 3

A Note: So, this is the first of a two-parter. I just decided to go ahead and post this part because I'm having trouble making the second part... not-ridiculous. You know how it is.

Blinking blearily, Naruto stumbles onto his feet and heads towards the nearest tree. Sighing contentedly as he goes about his business, he stands there will his eyes closed, head tilted back. There may or may not be drool. When he turns around, his eyes are still partially closed and he's not fully awake, focused only on the food bubbling in a pot over the fire. Mmmm, foood.

And then he steps into something hot. Very hot, actually. With a high, girly scream Naruto yanks his foot out of the fire as quickly as possible, sitting down and cradling it gently.

"You're such a chick sometimes," Jiraiya snorts, looking over at Naruto over their sizzling breakfast.

"Oh yeah? Wait till Tsunade hears you used that as an insult!"

Jiraiya pales beneath his makeup. "There's no need to get nasty."

"Then shut it and give me some food."

"It's not even done yet, brat. Siddown and shut up. No, better – do 1000 pushups while you're waiting."

"I'm not Lee, old pervert," Naruto mumbles, but does it anyway, mostly because there's nothing else to do – and besides, he wouldn't put it past Jiraiya to actually withhold food if he doesn't. Nothing, not even pride, is worth missing a good meal for.

Jiraiya mumbles to himself over the soup, stirring occasionally but mostly just singing to himself. When Naruto finishes, he walks back over, close enough to hear Jiraiya sing "Big ones, small ones, some as big as your head!"

"I can't believe you made up a song like that," Naruto complains, plopping down across the fire from him.

"What, a song about coconuts?"

"So that's what you're calling them now?! You pervy old man, I've had it up to here," and here he holds his hand up to his chest, "with your euphemisms."

"Oh my," scoffs Jiraiya. "That's not very high yet; guess I can keep going with them then. Short stuff."

Naruto bristles, about to launch into a great and mighty tirade when -

"Is this what passes for clever banter between you two? What a shame for both of you – Jiraiya-sama."

The woman crouched easily on a tree branch looked strange to Naruto. Her skin, her hair, her eyes, everything about her was black, or maybe just a dark, dark brown, Naruto thought, narrowing his eyes in confusion. Naruto's first overall impression was of a panther, but when she jumped down, he could see she loped, like a wolf. She moved, he realized, just like Jiraiya. Except, you know, with grace.

"You were Jiraiya's student?" Naruto asks, trying for shrewd and reaching odd and high-pitched instead.

She grins and comes closer. "A while ago now. And not for very long. Thank the gods."

"Long enough," Jiraiya grumps, folding his arms and trying to hide how pleased he is. He fails miserably, especially when she walks and gives him an affectionate pat on the cheek.

"I've been looking for you for several months now, Jiraiya. Where have you been hiding out from me?" She smiles. "And your food is burning, old man."

"Old man," Jiraiya roars, striding over to the pot. "Don't tell me you're going to start calling me that too?"

"I heard the boy and decided to try it out," she replies dryly. "Not sure whether I like it or not. It's certainly appropriate." Her gaze is direct and warming, like she and Naruto have been friendly acquaintances a long time, and she's glad to see him. "Here, child. Fine – young man – come over here. The old man obviously doesn't have the manners to introduce us. I'm Oltotsi. You are?"

"Naruto. I see you're not from around here?" he asks, again aiming at suave and shrewd, and again failing miserably.

"You see incorrectly. I was born only a few miles from here. Now. 'Naruto.' I'll remember it."

"Make sure you do. Someday I'm going to be Hokage of the Leaf Village."

"Really. Well then, show me what you've got." The amazing thing is that the friendly look doesn't shift from her eyes until after she's already gone. Where? Her lunge is quick and decisive, and it is over before Naruto has a chance to register it. Damn. She's obviously one of the squirrelly fighters. He always has the most trouble with the opponents that you can't. Really. _Hit_. And then he does.

Or not. His swing in her direction missed by an inch, and she ducks in under his arm, jabbing him in the stomach with a pointy stick. Ow. And then again. And again, as he tries to land hit after hit, only succeeding in hitting where she was a half second ago instead of where she is now. She knocks him to his feet after a hard jab to the stomach knocks all his wind out.

He doesn't waste any more time flailing around. He's not just some kid; he can catch all of her feints, up down and over, and can block most of her strikes, but not all, and he knows he has to go on the offensive. Bounding up the nearest tree, he sits and just pants for a minute. Then he starts to think. She's strong, but she's not stronger than him. She is fast. _Well, I'll just have to slow her down._

His hands start to form as he jumps down, a long and complicated train that doesn't require a lot of finesse otherwise. She's circling around him, again like a wolf, but this time the prey is Naruto. He gathers himself, and... spits on the ground. She stops her constant circling to look at him, a skeptical look on her face. He grins toothily; she obviously hasn't spent enough time in Water Country. Slowly, a pit of water starts to form at Naruto's feet, and he darts towards her, hand pulled back for a punch. She dodges the blow, which is okay. Her feet are still touching the ground, which is exactly where he wants them. Water puddles at her feet, and then engulfs them, soaking her leather boots and bogging them down in the process.

"Ugh. Don't tell me that's your _spit_ on my boots, Naruto."

Naruto grins, but doesn't say a word. He's not about to tell her that it's actually water, brought up by, well, his own water and his chakra. And he's definitely not about to tell her that if she jumps up high enough, feet off the ground, that she can break his hold. Especially because he's just not very good at it.

The move pays off as they continue the fight; slowed down that little bit, she's unsteady enough that he can land in a couple good punches, and he doesn't pull any of them. She can dish out the hits, but she can't seem to take them, and he thinks he has her against the ropes when there are teeth latched around his throat. Or, no, a kunai. But close enough. He cautiously releases his hold on her hair, waiting for her to pull it back, when she slices him a little.

"That was for my shoes, little one." And then she sheathes her kunai and backs away. "Not Hokage yet, are you."

They both look around at the clanging of a spoon against the pot. "Oh children," Jiraiya calls. "While you two were off playing I've been busy with our food. Which is done, by the way. Come here before I eat it all."

They eat and train the rest of the day, Oltotsi and Naruto getting to know each other. Jiraiya sits under a tree in the shade dozing the entire day, obviously not caring whether they kill each other.

She's actually pretty cool, Naruto has to admit. She doesn't have a whole motherly attitude, which he appreciates, but more like she's just... really cool. Which she is. She walks with confidence, but she doesn't strut. Naruto does strut, pretty much all the time, and so does Jiraiya. At sunset they sit by the river and fish with makeshift fishing poles. She tells him fishy folktales and they joke around. Naruto tells her about Leaf village, and when he sees that Oltotsi is actually listening to him he feels interesting and like he's cool too. She's kind of like Shikamaru, he realizes. Except not lazy. Easygoing. That's it. Easygoing. They return to camp with enough for all three of them, and they force Jiraiya to cook while they lie down and look up at the stars come out.

He's already half asleep when he hears a low conversation, Oltotsi's voice strained. "Master, I need this. Please. The boy doesn't have to come, but I can't do this alone. Only a legendary nin can pull this off."

Jiraiya's voice is rough and tired. "I can't leave him alone. Not now. There's too much Akatsuki activity in the area."

Naruto misses the next part of the conversation because he has to scratch his nose. Even his awesome hearing can't register anything over the rustling of his clothes. "...reach Shattered Mountains before the month is out."

"Which gives us what, six days? I'm sorry, I just don't think it can be done."

"This is my life." At that, Naruto can't hear anything more and isn't sure he wants to anyway. Not at night, anyway, when private thoughts surface and pain is fresh all over again. Whatever, it is, he'll hear more tomorrow.

The sun isn't up yet when Jiraiya shoves Naruto in the leg with his foot. Naruto drags himself out of bed with a tired sigh, knowing that wherever they're going it's probably going to be quite a trek. To his surprise, Jiraiya doesn't fill him in as they all get dressed and ready. Naruto and Jiraiya's normal ablutions consist of basically going to the bathroom and setting out, but Oltotsi is very fastidious and careful, actually bothering to wash her face and stuff.

"This must have driven you crazy when you two were training," Naruto says to Jiraiya, both of them sitting side by side on a log near the fire.

"Yup," Jiraiya replies glumly.

Naruto eyeballs Jiraiya. "So... where are we going?"

He grins. "You know that don't you? When you were listening last night?"

"Only sorta. Shattered Mountains?"

"I could tell you, but I think this should be a lesson to you: pay attention in Geography."

"Wha? That's not very fair! I'll have you know Geography was at the end at the day. I was usually gone by then."

"There you go then. Don't cut class." And with that Jiraiya gets up to follow Oltotsi, who's moving off along the river, leaving Naruto to scramble along behind them.

They travel for several days, Oltotsi getting more and more tense, though she hides it well. She obviously doesn't know that Naruto knows, because she's continuing to joke around and pretend that they're not traveling on a time limit, one that shows clearer and clearer on her face with each day. The forest grows thicker and thicker as they move further and further into Fire Country, going further and further into the wilds that surround the bases of the great Fire mountain range. Leaf village, Naruto thinks, is not so far from here, just on the other side of a cascade of hulking peaks and crags. As they move closer and closer though, one grouping becomes more and more prominent. From this distance, they look like the edge of a serrated knife. A knife made out of diamonds. They're not tall enough to be topped with snow, and they're actually below the tree line, he can see by comparing them to other peaks nearby, but they're completely bare above a certain point, and gleam with a sharp pearlescent light. As they get closer it gets warmer and warmer every afternoon, as they get closer to a refracted setting sun shining through the peaks themselves. Even distracted by the beauty, Naruto can't forget whenever he sees Jiraiya's grim face and Oltotsi's gaunt one: five days. Four days. Three days. Two.

Water Country is a faded memory when they reach the foot of the Shattered Mountains. Even the most prominent one is not a very large mountain, but its bright jagged edges present challenges to anyone that would climb up. Somehow there are parts of the Shattereds that reflect light, white and searing, so that every few steps are punctuated by a blinding flash. The effect starts about three miles from the actual base, and Naruto spends them wincing and cursing every few minutes. Both Oltotsi and Jiraiya handle the light in stoic silence.

There is a path winding up the base of the largest, and Oltotsi's eyes turn up to trace its precarious and sporadic presence upwards. It peters out about halfway up, but she nods decisively, so apparently that isn't a problem. A hut punctuates the beginning of the path, and when the three nin knock they are ushered inside by an old, wisened man. The hut is small, but warm, and there are three beds inside, and children's toys scattered about. "Your grandchild?" Naruto asks, pointing, and then blushes when the "old" man says they belong to his five year-old. Looking closer once they're all by the fire, he realizes that the wrinkles hide the youthful eyes.

"Sun damage," Jiraiya mouths, nodding towards the mountain man.

They exchange some rations and a kunai for a hot meal and directions, and then they're off on their way, leaving their hotter clothes behind in the man's safekeeping. Apparently it only gets hotter the further they go up the mountain.


	4. Chapter 4

The going is tough even for a ninja. It gets hotter the higher they go, and harder to see. Light floods Naruto's eyes and his eyes turn to slits. Whenever Jiraiya looks back at him he seems unnerved. Naruto is mystified until he spots his reflection against a sheer cliff face. He looks a little like the fox, his face scrunched up until the scars expand into whiskers across his face.

But Naruto thinks the fox is a power they might need, which is scary, because... well, a nin like Jiraiya shouldn't need backup. Wherever they're going, a nin like Oltotsi shouldn't need backup either; he's seen her hands move in practice, and she is no pushover. He wonders if that's why Jiraiya didn't look _too_ upset by his appearance. Maybe even a bit reassured.

Whatever sign Jiraiya was picking up on, Oltotsi was too. Her mouth tightened until it was a flat line, a line echoed by the creases in her forehead. It didn't feel ominous to Naruto as he basked in the sunlight during a brief stop for water. That is, until there were no more birds singing, and the sparse bushes and grasses looked brown and almost cooked.

By the time they reached the path's end, near noon on the second day, sweat was pouring off all three of them. Jiraiya shoved jerky at each of them, admonishing them with a "you need the salt, idiot" when Naruto complained he was too thirsty for it. "And drink some water," Jiraiya chided.

"Geeze, don't bother with a kind word or anything," Jiraiya just huffed and walked off. Naruto was sick of being tense.

They started up again the next morning, the sun a dream behind them. The mountain sloped up sharply under Naruto's feet, and when he slipped for the second time, he stopped to investigate. Carefully brushing away the dirt, now a thin overlay, he saw... something hard and slick and a little warm. Clawing at the remaining grime, Naruto looked down into dull, deep blackness. He imagined things moving in the dark, but when he blinked they were gone.

He looked up as if breaking a trance only to Jiraiya's foot inches from his face. "Hurry up, slowpoke," he rumbled from a distance somewhere above Naruto's head, framed by the sun and visible only as a halo of dirty gray spikes.

"Yeah, yeah," said Naruto, pushing himself up and shooting ahead, brushing off images of an unfathomable dark.

It took Naruto another day and night, staring up at the thick ice caps of the mountain to figure out why it was so hot. "Glass," he mumbled to himself. Not ice caps – solid glass. Looking at the rainbows refracted across the ground again and again, he felt very silly. No wonder it was so hot.

"Yes," said Oltotsi, coming up behind Naruto and saying the first words she had spoken since they had reached the stretches of uninterrupted dirt and glass. "The Shattered Mountains should crack and break, but instead they stand defiantly, defying all life to grow here. It is said they are cursed – all who journey here will be lulled by the heat and sink into a sleep of 1,000 years. That is, if their bodies do not wither away first." Her face was tight with tension and beautiful in its extremity of emotion. Why had she brought them here?

"I need you. Both of you, actually. Together, we're all to stubborn to give in. With three of us, we can all watch each other, stay awake and alert." A shadow of her old grin passed over her face. "All three of us are stubborn as mules."

They reached the heights as the sun was setting, shining in their eyes through the glass. It was so bright that Naruto almost missed the body, jammed into a crevice. Oltotsi stopped and scanned it anxiously, but it was a sack of bones, with barely a trace of cloth left.

"Don't give up," Jiraiya said gently. "He was always resourceful when I knew him."

"You knew him long ago," Oltotsi murmured. She squared her shoulders and stepped up to the crevasse leading up to sheer cliff face bounding up far above their heads. Naruto couldn't see where it leveled off, and he doubted that he could even get up there, let alone be in good enough condition to fight... whatever.

"How are we doing this?" pondered Jiraiya, rubbing the back of his neck. The sun cut lines into his face, forecasting his old(er) age.

Even as he spoke Oltotsi was unraveling a rope from her belt, light but strong cord. Ignoring Naruto's question of "And what the hall are we going to anchor that to?" she pulled out a long stick, almost a staff, splotched with a trailing dark stain down one side. With a quick bite and a ripping motion of her canines to the base of her thumb, her jaw pulsing, she swiped blood onto the staff.

Before Naruto could register any hand motions she made, there appeared a giant... furry-like thing. "It is called a koala." Oltotsi tossed the rope up to the "koala," who caught it easily, regarding them with still black eyes standing out from its soft gray fur.

The creature - "Kanda" Oltotsi had called him – climbed to the next level of the mountains easily, claws digging into the glass, shattering it by sheer dint of size; Naruto could have easily fit into one of the hole created by Kanda's claws.

The rope bit into Naruto's skin, looped about his waist and pulled tight. He wanted to whine, but bit it back; now wasn't the time.

Kanda disappeared as the gained the ledge. Around them on all sides was clear, translucent glass, unstained by smog or blood or any sign of humanity. Naruto wasn't sure why they had come here; there were no enemies here. He looked around, bathed in the heat of the setting sun magnified by glass untouched by dirt. It was so warm, and he was so warm already. Naruto covered his face with his hands, trying to block out the light. If only he could just... sleep. Finally rest.

Wait. What?

Naruto shook himself vigorously, only to see Oltotsi and Jiraiya watching him and each other grimly, eyes flicking back and forth. He nodded an affirmation: yes, he was awake, and would be on his guard from now on. They moved forward, with Oltotsi like a bad omen, "It will only get harder the further we go." It was already hard enough.

They pushed onward doggedly, in the end tying the rope around all three of them, so that as long as one person was still going, the other two would as well. Naruto was feeling more stable now, and was just fighting to get to the end, wherever they were going. Everything stopped mattering but that, the rush to go forward and break free.

When Naruto next opened his eyes, it was completely dark, and his leg was burning, and he couldn't breathe right. Straightening himself up and clawing desperately at the rope pulled taut about his waist, his eyes strained to see through the night; though in the daytime the mountain was flooded with light, right now the moon was a vague pale shadow behind the thick glass peaks, not yet up to its full height.

When he was finally free, he reached down to his leg, fingers brushing around gingerly in the dark. There was a kunai there, buried not quite to the hilt. He started when his fingers brushed warmth, the body of someone else. The fingers were long and thin and warm, the fingers of a young person, the fingers of a woman. "Ol- Olt-" He cleared his throat. His voice was hoarse and dry. "Oltotsi?"

There was no response, but her fingers were gripping his pant leg so tight that he had to pry it off with both hands. Unrestricted, he took his shirt off and pulled the kunai out, pressing down as hard as he could and binding the wound up as best he could. Naruto shivered in the dark, and shook Oltotsi gently at first, and then harder and harder. She wouldn't wake up, and he worried at a nail, wondering what to do. He looked around for and found Jiraiya, slumped over in a sprawl, arms splayed out in supplication.

No amount of shaking would wake Jiraiya up either, and Naruto kicked him - just a little bit, just enough to wake him up, not that it wasn't satisfying too. But when it didn't work, Jiraiya only snorting a bit, unmoving, Naruto slumped down next to him. This was so depressing. He was never going to be able to wake them up, and they were all going to die here, and somehow it didn't really seem to matter anymore, not even to Konoha's most indomitable ninja. Naruto slowly toppled over, sinking down into a peaceful oblivion.

Except he woke up again, the moon clear and radiant over his head. His leg was bleeding again, and pulsing in that worrying way that he new presaged infection. With each heartbeat, he was able to think clearer. He looked over at Oltotsi's unconcious form, stretched out with purpose towards the spot he had passed out. Naruto took up the kunai and gingerly scratched the back of her leg, only just breaking the skin. There was no response, but pushing harder, he broke through skin, fat, deep into the muscle, blood welling out. Naruto slumped over once again, this time knowing as he passed out that he wouldn't be able to wake up again.

Fortunately, he didn't have to. Naruto woke up to the sight of dark translucent glass stretched out in front of him, and to a dull ache in his calf, a pain of healing instead of infection this time. He knew that his bandage must have been changed, or he would have been able to smell it from here. Oltotsi popped into his field of vision, her hand as it was before, long and slim and competent, quick fingers snapping a few times in his face before dragging him up.

Jiraiya was up too, bedraggled and cradling his arm to his side, but conscious. Oltotsi nodded to each of them and they set off once more, marching like soldiers in a file. This turned out to be a good idea when the path narrowed, and it was a tight squeeze. Naruto's bones clicked as he shouldered by, and Jiraiya had to shuffle sideways through the tighter spots, a weird crab walk that made Naruto grin even though there was nothing funny going on.

Pushing past a series of crystals jutting out of the ground, they reached a cluster that eventually gathered together above their heads, leading down into the ground. "This looks almost... constructed," rumbled Jiraiya, voice bouncing leadenly off the walls.

"Yes," agreed Oltotsi. "That's because it is." She walked forward, past the arching entrance – and Naruto could see now, the marks of a entryway now, the arching frame, the structure to smooth to be natural. For the first time, Naruto felt a foreboding chill. Oltotsi in trouble? Fine. Big giant mountains? Fine. Big giant _cursed_ mountains? Only to be expected, really. When was there _not_ someone to rescue on a big rushed dash through the forest and up a sheer cliff? But this? Naruto stood stock still, firmly resisting the impulse to either dash away madly or to grab Oltotsi by the neck and demand an explanation. He resisted doing the latter mostly because he knew his ass would only be kicked if he tried.

"Old man," he hissed. "Old pervert! What the hell is this?"

They watched together as Oltotsi became completely invisible in the gloom down below, until not even a shadow of her was still visible. Only then did Jiraiya lean over and murmur, "The man we are looking for... was very creative. And powerful. And didn't like to be disturbed."

"So what, he created a cursed mountain to occupy? One that kills people? What the hell!"

"No. Boy, shut up, you're starting to get shrill. The curse was here before, obviously. He just took up residence in an old place." Jiraiya stared down into the passageway as though he could see clear down to the bottom. "A place not meant for humans, powerful or not."

And then rising up from the tunnel came a hollow cry. Naruto started forwards, but Jiraiya grabbed him tightly by the arm, face stony. They stood at the entryway, listening to the short staccato sounds of sobs rising up.

**Me talking: **So it's finally finished. At least, this part. The next chapter is like... 25% finished. And it has sex. Like. 1000 words of it. Oh dear. A word of warning: I don't discriminate by gender or sexuality, so pretty much any type of pairing is fair game for what I feel like at the time. So... boy/boy, girl/girl, or girl/boy are all options. I'll always post a warning and never put the actual sex stuff on but rather on my lj, linked in my profile. Peace!


	5. Chapter 5

**Me talking: **The beginning of the next segment: a mystery in three parts! And maybe a little boy/boy love in Chapter 7. Since I've already written most of Chapter 6, by maybe I mean "yes." But only because Naruto has a hidden gay crush on Sasuke.

Naruto dreams. Sakura is fluttering in and out of his sight, like a butterfly rocked by the wind, or a hummingbird. Something beautiful, because she will always be beautiful to him, her arms rising upward and her voice low. Her back arches and she is a dolphin and then gone. A dark shadow shifts in the background, rising up.

He wakes at predawn. He hears a wailing and expects it to stop once he registers the sound, thinks that it must be him. But it doesn't stop; it only intensifies and he slips off the blanket and gets to his feet, graceful as he is only when no one's there to see. He treads lightly to the window, looking at the snow starting to fall, blanketing the inn. The entire world is dark and light at the same time, stained sickly yellow by the guttering oil lamp outside, no other light from the already-set moon or the soon-to-rise sun.

Naruto shifts restlessly. The wailing has not stopped, and he knows it is just the wind. The dreamlike quality of the night shatters when Jiraiya's thick drunken snore hits, droning on and on. Just as Naruto is called to reality, he sees a shadow slip in the corner of his eye, outside on the snow. It is a familiar shape, a familiar motion, and he is frozen, breath held in and eyes wide. It is, it cannot be anyone else, but the longer he stares the more it becomes nothing at all, eyes open so long everything turns black, and with his blink all phantoms real or imagined are gone. The sun is rising.

Naruto goes back to bed, prepared to stay there until noon. When he sleeps he dreams of shadows, always approaching but never arriving.

He wakes to find the light muted, though he thought it would be late. Jiraiya's snore is laboured now, breath puffing out from his nose, visible in the cold. A stream of drool is visible on his chin, slick and muted in the dimness. Gross.

Naruto slips on his undershirt and black pants, unusually subdued by the atmosphere. Not to mention that his orange clothes are all in the wash. The wash water is probably frozen, and Naruto wonders how long it will be until he can actually get them back. It doesn't matter much though. Jiraiya will want to stay for a few more days, and Naruto can't find it in himself to object.

The inn, more fairly a brothel, is large and clean, several sleek wooden floors. Most of its guests are fat and wealthy, and Naruto still can't figure out how they got rooms. Jiraiya, he knows, can actually be charming when he puts his mind to it, but Naruto doesn't want to think about it in any closer detail than that. Though, he muses, pushing back a screen to reveal a short passage blocked off by a very subtle entryway, it could just be professional courtesy. After all, Jiraiya does write those crap books. Naruto pushes open the screen, discrete as the screen itself – _secret passage_, Naruto thinks – to enter the main balcony, wrapped around the central area of the inn itself. Four floors tall, it is the highest place Naruto has ever been, with the exception of the Hokage's headquarters. He stands quietly in the shadows of the fourth floor, overlooking the tiered balconies and the central hot springs. The entire inn is built around the hot springs, with both men and women already soaking up heat. The sections aren't separated by gender, and Naruto watches with only vague interest as a man his companion fuck with enthusiasm.

Standing there hidden by his own uncharacteristic stillness, Naruto smells something so familiar and elusive it winds into his brain and burrows down. There is nothing for him in that moment but finding and recovering the sensation of some point in his past, when he was a boy in truth instead of the half-man half-boy hybrid he is now, when his breath never caught in his chest, snagged on old wounds buried there. He doesn't move, but instead feels the world turn over. He collapses onto the ground, one leg buckling and then the other, like dominoes. In his head he can almost hear the voice, _Did you just faint when you smelled me, idiot?_

And then the world stops spinning and he gets up, leaning on the railing unsteadily. Naruto looks down to the hot springs, only to see a different man and a different woman, but still fucking. He envisions himself down there, but he's young, he's hot stuff. He could do better than that old fat-ass. Then Naruto feels ashamed of himself; he's not mean usually.

He moves down silently, jumping down to the third floor, the floors tiered and easy to jump from. The world tilts again but not all the way, and he prowls forward, ready to strike at anything that moves. The corridor is empty, but behind discrete closed doors ineffectually blocking the sounds of moans and snores and the occasional grunt there are people, sleeping or otherwise occupied in bed.

He listens closely but does not hear the only voice he cares to hear, right now. Instead, he can almost feel Kyuubi's rumbling in the depths of his body. But not really. Naruto shakes himself sharply, trying to shake himself out of whatever funk he's in. Too late he notices, subtle but pervasive, the odor of incense on the air, herbs and opium.

A door slams open and a girl bursts out, flowery pink kimono gaping open to reveal a prepubescent body. Naruto is repulsed to see a older man follow, laughing like it's all fun an games. Naruto knows it's not, because he had a chance to see her face; he follows after them silently, moving from rafter to rafter. The man is drunk, or something else, but Naruto can't tell. His sandals clop along the floor loudly, wooden heels just ready and waiting to wedge into some convenient gap in the floorboards... like the one that Naruto pries open with his claws, hiding himself as much as possible in the poorly-lit corridor.

The man falls flat on his face, and the girl stops to watch, startled by his "whump!" of distress. Naruto finishes him off with a solid blow to the head and drags him quickly back to the room the girl ran out of in the first place. He does his best to act nonchalant, but no one really cares in the first place, and nobody from the hot springs even looks up in their direction. Drugged out of their minds, Naruto guesses, though he doesn't know for sure.

The girl – and she's older than he first guessed, though not by much – she reminds him of Sakura, way back before they had even graduated. They regard each other silently for a second, Naruto really unsure of the etiquette in this situation. How do you leave someone after having knocked out their employer/harasser? Apparently she knows though, because she steps forward and then gets on her knees, leaning forward. Naruto jerks back, repulsed. "Eh? No! What?!? No. Nonononono. Get up. Seriously. Not cool."

She looks up at him with a puzzled expression, like she's never had anyone reject a blowjob (_from a early-teen-something girl!_). He almost feels bad, like he kicked a puppy or something, because she looks a little rejected and scared too. "Ah, hey, come on, it's fine. Um, so, hey, where can a guy get something to eat around here?"

And she nods her head down and to the side, over to the hot springs, where the just-finished-fucking couple are now downing kebabs and tepid sake, lounging on the warm rocks. "No, like, real food."

She looks at him in surprise, again, and it's an expression he's beginning to suspect she just wears perpetually, like a little rabbit or a squirrel. But she nods, smiling briefly, and then runs off towards a nearby stairwell, recessed and narrow. When she stops and motions him forward, he doesn't see why he shouldn't follow. It's not like some little girl is going to ambush him, right?

Except she runs off in front of him and darts to the side just as he puts his foot on the floor. He suspects its coming, but even then barely has time to register the frying pan hurtling towards his face. He had already started ducking though, and stumbles off the stairs into a crouch, hands raised to deflect further cutlery, thrown, hurled, or whatever. That appears to be it, though, and she looks at him with a chagrined expression.

Naruto holds his hands up in a placating gesture. "Hey, look, don't worry about it. I just want some food, you know?"

She stares at him.

Well. "My name is Naruto, and me and my teacher are staying here for a couple of days. It's gonna be a real bad stay if I can't get some food, know what I mean? I promise, I don't eat little kids." He grins disarmingly, or tries to. He's started to get little fangs sometimes what with the fox and all, and suspects that his grins aren't as wholesome as they used to be.

She stares at him some more. Can she even talk? Has she been brain damaged? But then she shifts forward a little, hefting the frying pan in her hand. "Are you a monster?"

What? "Um... no."

"You have claws," she observes. "And whiskers. I think you're a demon."

"Wha? Or well, yeah, they are claws, but these things, they're just ridges. It's cause I made a nasty face one day, and my face got stuck like this." She giggles, and makes a face, tongue sticking out and eyes crossed.

"Augh, noooo! How horrible!" Naruto huddles and covers his face, wide eyes peeking out behind his fingers. See, he can do kids. Not so bad.

She smiles and nods decisively. "Okay. Even if you are, monsters aren't so bad." And she drops the frying pan with a clatter, running forward again and beckoning him onward. She doesn't look scared anymore, which Naruto takes as a hopeful sign, and he follows her into the gloom of the hallway.

The next room they come to is brightly lit, and free of the drugged fumes that were so pervasive outside. In it about a dozen people are sitting, bustling about with produce and cooking or grouped around a large central table. Most of them are women, but there are several men, one of whom is examining bowls of dough clustered around the fireplace. It's a homey scene, one that takes Naruto back to Leaf for an instant, and Iruka's small apartment smelling of cooking vegetables and ramen.

The atmosphere slams to a halt when they all notice him, en masse. He grins weakly, thrown off by the weight of their stare, but his little companion – who has still not given him a name – gestures him forward and sits him down at the table. One woman in particular gives him the evil eye, like he was a bug or something that had tagged along on someone's shoe.

The girl steps forward, body language much more confident here, in a place she knows and he hopes has people who care about her. "This is Naruto. He's a monster, but he's nice." And with that she sits down next to him and pulls over a bowl of peas to start shelling them. He looks around, seeing that people aren't much happier with that pronouncement. He's not surprised.

"Ah. Hi. I just, uh, ran into this girl in the hall and asked where some food was, you know." He shifts, not sure what else to say.

Finally a large burly woman at the stove says, "Suki doesn't take kindly to strangers. And this isn't a place for guests."

"He hit Hisao on the head," Suki pipes in, not looking up from her peas, a task she seems really intent on. "And he didn't want to eat down there with all the adults." And suddenly everyone relaxes, as if this statement really explains something, or maybe it's just that he's a "kid" instead of a guest, and in that context Naruto guess it makes sense. Plus Naruto has always looked younger than he really is, a fact that used to bug him. It seems lucky here though, because with a smile a bowl of rice is put in front of him, along with a buttered roll. Naruto has had both, before, but never at the same time. He's not complaining though, and tries not to inhale them, listening absently as conversation starts up again around him.

There is a peace to the large kitchen, a community of bustle and toil, and more and more people filter in as the morning ages, so that by the time much of the staff is in for breakfast, Naruto has already eaten his fill of firsts, seconds, and thirds, and is just sitting there watching, uncharacteristically silent. Maybe just matching the silence of his companion, Suki. She's done too, and they shell peas together. Cooks and maids bustle about, gathering up breakfast foods of all kinds, some that Naruto has never seen before, and some infinitely familiar (home, their scents say as they waft up and then dissipate).

The room suddenly gathers itself up, and Naruto can smell the tinge of fear in the air. A small side door, opulent and beautiful – Naruto had assumed it was decorative only – is pulled open by one of the kitchen boys and a woman strides through, grand and proud. Her bearing is that of a king in his kingdom, and Naruto thinks her face is too harsh, as though it were carved out of granite rather than more malleable flesh. Her long kimono swishes in the relative silence, as everyone stops talking, though not everyone stops working; rice boils for as long as it boils and bread bakes as it will without regard to big entrances and dramatic pauses.

Her eyes survey the room, black and bold against her heavy white facepaint, and though they pause briefly on Naruto, she doesn't deign to comment, and instead goes up to the woman who had given Naruto food at first, and he realizes now the kitchen must be her domain, because there is no doubt the kimonoed lady in front of him is anything but the owner of the entire brothel. She looks like a courtesan, not someone who belongs here, covered in flour or gizzards. After a brief conference and a distant smile, she walks out. Conversation resumes shortly after she's gone, no nervousness in the air now, so this must be a daily visit, though maybe not always this peaceful.

She exits without flair, turning abruptly on her heel. She strides away (looking like someone who always strides) without a glance at Naruto, so he figures he's okay. It isn't until she's almost gone that he notices her companion, which shouldn't have happened. And right away, he knows the dude is a nin; there's no other explanation. He's kind of short, with wild black hair and dark mischievous eyes. His body is compact, a lot of power concentrated in a small space. Though his mistress (boss? mother?) hadn't spared Naruto a second glance, his eyes lingered on Naruto. Naruto did his best to appear unintimidating and meek. He wasn't sure it was working when the man's gaze sharpened in interest.

"Hi. I'm Ken," he says with a big grin. His teeth are very white, Naruto notices. And his eyes are very blue. And he's wearing a very tight shirt. "I work here. You are?"

Naruto knows he spends the next couple minutes talking about himself, but he can't really remember any of it by the end of the conversation. He regains his senses by the time Ken walks away, casting a smile over his shoulder before walking off. As he goes Naruto recognizes a set of shoulders, so familiar but so impossible to place, the stride both familiar and secretly cherished. But the moment of recognition is gone and Ken once again is a stranger, and he looks like no one Naruto has ever seen before.

Naruto finishes without fanfare, and is reluctant to exit the refreshing atmosphere of the kitchen, but he is hurried out by the head cook – Ma Belle, it means beautiful, and you sure as hell better refer to her as such, one of the older men had informed – once the room gets too full of bustling courtesans to stand up or even breathe.

He's swallowed up by the outside air. It's heavy and moist, and he suspects water has been thrown over heated stones throughout the building. They obviously make an effort to keep the place as hot as possible, probably because so much business is conducted without clothes on, Naruto decides. He's hot in the humidity, and irritable, because now that he knows the air is drugged it scratches at his lungs, clogging them up with invisible grit.

Naruto trolls around the side passages for a long time, trying to avoid people as much as possible. He isn't in the mood for giggling right now, which is all he hears around others. That and moans, anyway. He's a teenage boy, but this is over the top even for him; he could never stand to be so useless. Naruto scratches up the walls just for kicks, claws digging deep into the wood.

Finally, after an hour or so of restless wandering, he stumbles upon a garden, surrounded by paper glazed so thin it's translucent, light seeping through. He sits down by the plants and just breathes, unable to grasp why he hates it here so much.

As the sun gets brighter and brighter, he hears a slamming of doors and a scream, and then another. He perks up, dashing out into the hall, trying to find his way back to a more central area. There's a slamming of feet against hardwood above his head, and then a side panel a few feet in front of him is slid back to reveal several burly men, and with them, Ken.

"What happened?" Naruto asks, realizing that their meeting is probably not accidental.

"The honorable Hisao has been found dead." Ken levels an even look at him, and Naruto is too starved for words to say anything. _Shit_.


End file.
